Enthusiasm!

I would like to begin by thanking Edie, our web designer for “christening” our blog for us. She writes the same way she works – with much enthusiasm! There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm around Disciplers these days with so many new challenges, changes, and evidences of fruit from our labors. Speaking of “enthusiasm”, did you know that it comes from the Greek word “enthousiasmos” derived from the adjective “entheos” which means “having the god within”. The word “enthusiasm” first appeared in English in 1603 with the meaning “possession by a god”. I know that here at Disciplers, God is the center and source of our enthusiasm and I am daily grateful for that in my fellow workers.

Years ago when I was serving in Disciplers under Pearl Hamilton, our founder, I taught our class every week while she was ill, suffering from acute leukemia. During those months, I visited Pearl every day and she would inevitably ask me how my preparation for the lecture was going. Then would come her big question, “Are you excited yet?” Pearl was always filled with enthusiasm (God within) when she taught and she knew that I needed that also. Ever since those days, whenever I have taught God’s word, I have always prayed for enthusiasm. I also pray for enthusiasm for all of our Disciplers classes as men, women, and children study and grow as Disciples of Jesus Christ.

One of the things I am enthusiastic about these days is editing and preparing many of our older lessons for download. Pearl began writing Disciplers lessons back in 1987 and some of those early lessons have never been edited. Of course, we do not want to change Pearl’s wonderful lessons in any way, but many have typographical and formatting errors. Furthermore, when Pearl wrote she was also working full time as Director of Women’s Ministries at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Southern California. Writing lessons and teaching Bible study were not part of her job description. Her writing and teaching were done on her own time. In those early years, because of Pearl’s heavy schedule, sometimes the lesson notes we received each week would not be much more than an outline. (But we were always richly blessed by her lectures!) And although Pearl worked hard to fill in the sparse areas of those lessons before she died, some of her lessons have been sadly incomplete. We are busy at prayer and work to fill in where God leads in order to provide you with more complete lessons. James, Galatians, and Hebrews have been updated and are ready for download. I hope that those of you who have previously used these lessons in your classes will check out the edited studies. Presently we are working on the Judges and Ruth lessons and would appreciate your enthusiastic prayers as the Lord leads us in this endeavor.  

~Suzie